By Our Correspondent

SRINAGAR - The human rights situation in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir has come under renewed international scrutiny following the release of alarming data revealing that thousands of missing persons cases remain unsolved.

According to statistics tabled in the Indian Parliament by the Ministry of Home Affairs, a staggering 7,141 cases of missing persons were reported in the region during 2023.

Of these, while 2,961 individuals were traced or recovered, 4,190 people remained missing by the end of the year -- painting a grim picture of unresolved disappearances that continue to haunt families across the territory.

The figures, compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau, reveal a steady and troubling increase in missing persons over the past four years.

At the end of 2020, the number of untraced individuals stood at 3,813, which rose progressively to 3,960 in 2021, 3,847 in 2022, and finally to 4,190 by the end of 2023.

Children and women constitute a significant portion of these cases, with data showing that of the 821 children reported missing in 2022, only 376 were traced -- leaving 445 still untraced, with girls forming a higher proportion among missing minors.

Human rights activists and experts say these statistics raise serious questions about the human rights situation in the disputed region and demand the attention of the international community.

The families of the missing continue to wait for justice and transparent investigations, with many alleging that enforced disappearances have become a systematic tool of suppression used by the Indian army.

“My younger brother has been missing since 2020. He was picked up by Indian intelligence agencies from Srinagar, and we still have no information about his whereabouts,” a local resident told The South Asia Times.

His name is being withheld for security reasons, as the authorities mostly targeted people who speak to the media on the issue.

“Not only my brother, but hundreds of young people have disappeared. We don’t know whether they are alive or have been killed by Indian agencies,” he added.

The crisis has drawn condemnation from international watchdogs. Human Rights Watch, in its World Report 2026, exposed what it termed "systematic human rights violations" in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, warning that such practices "severely damage India's international human rights credibility".

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has also repeatedly urged India to address the human rights situation in the region and restore its special constitutional status, which was revoked in August 2019.

Nationally, the scale of the problem is even more staggering -- across India, missing persons reports exploded from 6.70 lakh in 2020 to 8.68 lakh in 2023, with over 4 lakh cases nationwide remaining unsolved at the end of last year.

For the 4,190 families in Jammu and Kashmir still waiting for answers, each passing day deepens the anguish of not knowing the fate of their loved ones -- a human tragedy that continues to unfold far from the headlines.